5 local things to eat or drink for only a dollar

Thom Fountain |

Think of this as a kind of local dollar menu – a starter menu, at least – for when you need a hearty snack, and all you have is a buck.

1. An Egg Roll

Saturdays bring the scrumptious treat for only 99 cents at Rice Palace on South Barstow, with your choice of pork, chicken or veggies. Good luck just having one, though.

2. A Burger

Golden Spike – the Altoona bar and grill – doubles down on Thursdays with dollar burgers, topped off with limited (but enough) fixin's. And hey, are you really gonna complain about a one-dollar burger? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

3. One (or Two) Beers

The Joynt caused a stir when they raised prices – from 75 cents to a dollar – some years back. But their happy hour still brings it with 50 cents per glass of Premium, Point, or Leinie's. They’re not the only place serving up “One Washington Brews” (I’m copyrighting that term, by the way): Plenty of bars have $1 domestic taps during happy hour.

4. Two Ounces of Fro-Yo

It may not be much, but maybe all you want is a smidge of frozen yogurt from Raspberry Reign, where they sell their creations at 47 cents an ounce. Fro-yo is plentiful (and pretty inexpensive if you choose lighter toppings) in these parts so if you just need to go twice in one day, you can check out one of the other local shops and be slightly less embarrassed.

5. Two Chicken Wings

One of the quintessential bar foods, chicken wings are always a cost-saving option but particularly on wing nights. Playmakers has 50 cent wings on Mondays. (You can wash them down with a One Washington Brew©).

We know these can’t be the only cheap treats in the Chippewa Valley, so leave a comment to mention what we left out!